I'll Open the Window

BY ANNA SWIR
Our embrace lasted too long.
We loved right down to the bone.
I hear the bones grind, I see
our two skeletons.

Now I am waiting
till you leave, till
the clatter of your shoes
is heard no more. Now, silence.

Tonight I am going to sleep alone
on the bedclothes of purity.
Aloneness
is the first hygienic measure.
Aloneness
will enlarge the walls of the room,
I will open the window
and the large, frosty air will enter,
healthy as tragedy.
Human thoughts will enter
and human concerns,
misfortune of others, saintliness of others.
They will converse softly and sternly.

Do not come anymore.
I am an animal
very rarely.

This piece, by Anna Swir, is the opposite topic of the previous poem. It is deeply illuminating a dark,

vivid reaction to a break up. This poem surprised me in how relatively graphic it was. What I found

distressing, as well as interesting, is the vivid imagery that appealed to most of my senses when I

read it. I also liked the fact that this was a poem that got me thinking a little more than the poem

before it. It was vivid, dark, and had some very abstract ideas in it which I was not able to fully

understand. These are the types of pieces that I like.

What is also interesting about this piece is that it is relatively accurate, not based on my own

experiences. When one does indeed break up, this poem is accurate in defining the feeling a person

may get. Again, not based on my own experiences!